Re: getimagesize() & MySQL Image Storage (Running functions on contents of variables)

From: Justin Patrin (papercrane_at_reversefold.com)
Date: 12/07/03 

Date: Sun, 07 Dec 2003 01:46:23 -0800
To: Galen <phplist@zinkconsulting.com>

Galen wrote:

> I'm using a MySQL database to store images as BLOBs. I know how to
> handle all the MySQL stuff, it's easy, and really makes keeping track of
> files nice an clean. No permissions, no risk of getting things out of
> sync, finding stuff is as easy as SQL.
>
> My question is about handling stuff once you pull it out of the
> database. When I store images in the database, I currently stash the
> format and the resolution in the database, which works but is a bit
> messy. I can't find any easy way to run getimagesize on the contents of
> a variable, not a file. I could write the image to a file if I needed
> to, but that can be slow and rather inelegant, I'd rather store the
> values in the DB. Any ideas on how I could use getimagesize or similar
> function to determine the format and resolution of the image in a variable?
>
> I have had a similar problem with ftp uploading. There was no way to
> upload the contents of a variable, so I had to write everything to the
> disk, kind of annoying when I have 1,000 files. The script wasn't a very
> heavily used script nor could the public execute it, but it bugged me to
> no end. I think there are some other functions that also only operate on
> files and I've fought with them too.
>
> Is there any kind of generic solution for this? Some kind of wrapper I
> could use to make a variable act like a reference to a file but actually
> be in memory only?
>
> If this seems totally pointless, please tell me. But it seems like there
> should be a way for almost any function that runs off a file to run off
> the contents of a variable, it's just binary data.
>
> Thanks,
> Galen

If the programs read from a file descriptor, you could open a pipe,
write into it on your side, and have the command read from it. But
that's really messy... and won't work for the image size function.

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